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Sunday, March 17, 2013

Chasing my pot o' gold

So for a while now, I've been meaning to write a post about my goals. I have them all in my head, but they are more like plans than actual goals. For me, in order for a goal to be an official goal, it has to have a deadline, a plan of attack and mini check points to be sure I'm staying on track. Weeks have gone by since I 'planned' on writing this post. One reason is because I don't have a schedule (deadline) for my blog posts, and the second reason is because I realized I don't have any deadlines for any of my goals! All I know right now is what I want to accomplish in life and generally what order those things are going to come in.

It's been hard for me to settle down and take some time to write this post. Right now I feel like my brain is too busy trying to focus on building up my Avon team and making it to my next title advancement. Just a few minutes ago I finally looked at a calendar to figure out how long it'll take for me to do that. I'm torn between two dates. But I think that for the sake of pushing myself a little (actually a lot) I'll go with the first date. So here we go - My goals:

Starting with the most immediate goals

Avon

Obtain my next title, Advanced Unit Leader (which is the second step up) by May 31

This means I need to have two Unit Leaders, 12 people submitting orders, $250 in my own sales and a team total of $4,500 in sales.

I'd also like to have 30 team members; an increase of 13 new members. If I aim to sign up 5 new team members for each vendor event I have scheduled (eight) between now and April, I will be able to reach that goal, and hopefully surpass it.

By November 15 I would like to have 100 customers in my mailing list.

School

I'm attending school to obtain an Associates Degree in Certified Shorthand Reporting. I'd like to be finished up by March of 2014.

Move to Colorado

I have absolutely no idea when this is going to happen. It's truly dependent on when I finish up with school. I have no idea the actual dates of these, but it would be nice if they would happen sometime next summer or fall.

Work as a court reporter

The only reason I am going to school for this profession is because many people in this field earn six figure incomes. I'm pretty sure I could handle that kind of money, considering I have $40 in my savings account right now.

Earn six figures with Avon

Earn six figures with my degree

Buy my first rental property

Buy my first 'me' property

Retire from court reporting

Support my family with Avon and rental properties

Whoa... pretty lofty goals. I'm sure most people would believe I will not achieve all of this. I've never actually seen my own goals in life laid out like that before, I've just had them floating around in my head. I don't talk to anybody about these goals. At least not all of them all at once. My boyfriend knows I plan on doing most of this. My upline knows I plan on making Senior Executive Unit Leader someday. But that's about it.

I think sharing your goals with someone needs to have some serious consideration behind it. I don't share any of my goals with my mom because I know she doesn't believe all of them can be achieved. She would say 'that would be nice if you could do that.' But that's as far as her input would go. Mostly she would just encourage me to get a job that could support me, but for me getting a job is out of the question, save for the few years (maybe 5-10) that I will work as a court reporter. I think the reason I'll be able to manage that job for a while is because I'm not working in customer service, not in sales and really not trying to promote a business for an owner while I make $8/hour. Court reporters go in to work, sit down and type and later hand over transcripts. Not much interaction with a boss who wants more money. But I digress...

I've had a lot of training on goal setting in all my years of sales experience. Zig Ziglar has the greatest videos on setting goals. Here is a good place to start. As one of the greatest motivational speakers in our time, I'm proud to be able to say that I had the opportunity to see him speak before he passed on.

From Zig Ziglar, I learned that to set a goal, there are 7 steps you have to take in order to be sure you will be successful. I have used these 7 steps many many times, and every time I has kept me going in the right direction. And these can be used for any and every goal you'll ever want to achieve.

I've also read many books and have collected many quotes on goal setting. Here are a few of my favorites:

Arriving at one goal is the starting point to another. ~John DeweyYou must have long-range goals to keep you from being frustrated by short-range failures. ~Charles C. NobleIf you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else. ~Lawrence J. PeterGoals are dreams with deadlines. ~Diana Scharf Hunt

So there you have it. And, consequently, so do I. Here's to the next 10 weeks of Avon work. I'll keep you updated on how it goes!

4 comments:

Good luck with the goals! Laying them out there is a bit intimidating, but I think it definitely changes how you look at them and can make you feel more accountable for your actions towards them - even if it's only to yourself.

Colorado, woo! That is where I'm at after living in the Midwest my entire life. May I suggest Northern Colorado? Boulder is too expensive. However, Longmont (my place), Loveland and Fort Collins are all great.